Spring Break by the Numbers

Spring Break is a wonderful time. It’s one week off during one of the most pleasant times of year, just as it’s getting warm enough to travel outside in shorts. It’s the perfect time to savor the sunny evenings, the leafy trees, and the chipper wildlife—even if there’s too much pollen in the air.

We love Spring Break so much at Always For Me that we decided to study it. We asked 4,218 people of all ages about their spring break plans. Some of the results may surprise you.

The Most Popular Spring Break Activities are Eating at Restaurants and Sightseeing.

We asked survey respondents what activities they had planned for spring break. Almost half of people, 49.8%, said that they planned on eating at restaurants. Sightseeing came in second with 42.9%, while swimming at the beach came in third with 37.5%. Surprisingly, only 15.1% planned on dancing.

Most people are thrifty on spring break.

32.1% of people plan to spend less than $500 on spring break, and almost 60% of people plan to spend less than $1,000 on Spring Break. It appears that people don’t need to spend a whole lot of money to have a good time.

Most people’s Spring Break trips will only be 4 or 5 days.

While 20% of people are tempted to spend over 7 days on spring break, about 80% of people will spend less than a week on their trip. About 30% of people will spend 4 to 5 days on Spring Break.

Most people travel in small groups for spring break.

While you may notice hordes of spring breakers in some vacation destinations, they’re actually the outlier. 88% of people travel in groups of 6 or fewer people. The most common group size is 3 - 6 people, which is 38% of group sizes.

Older men really do wear speedos more than younger guys.

The perception is true! If you break down men’s choice in swimwear by age, older men are more likely to wear speedos. While both young and older men prefer shorts to speedos, 25% of older men prefer speedos, while only 9.7% of 18-24 year olds make the same choice.

While about a third of 18-24 year old women prefer bikinis to one- and two-piece bathing suits, that number shrinks as women get older. For women 65 and older, almost 70% prefer one-piece bathing suits.

Most people that go on spring break do so every year.

42.7% of people travel for spring break every year, while 13.2% of people travel for spring break every other year. It seems as if, for most people, Spring Break is a tradition that they take part in every year.

The Beach is the most popular Spring Break destination.

While a majority of people do not go to the beach for Spring Break, 37.5% of people plan on going there. 17% people plan on visiting a big city, while 10.7% of people plan on visiting the mountains. It should be noted that a large group of people 22.9%, chose “None of these”.

Almost half of people plan on driving to their Spring Break destination.

48% of people plan on driving to their Spring Break destination, while 36% plan on flying. Only 3.6% of people said they plan on taking a cruise, but almost 10% of people chose the “Other” category.

While Spring Break is fun, it can’t last forever. Everyone has to return to their everyday lives, but at least Spring Break leaves us with fun memories to keep forever.